Snow! In Winter! Amazing!
Posted on February 6, 2007 Posted by John Scalzi 30 Comments
The good news is that it’s no longer so cold that it can’t actually snow. On the other hand, well, we’ve got snow and lots of it — the first actual accumulation this winter — and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop anytime soon. We’ll have to see if we’ll actually be able to leave the house tomorrow morning. Tonight, at least, we don’t have to go anywhere. And it is pretty.
Y’know, it’s a myth that it gets too cold to snow. In Antarctica they have had measurable snow even at the coldest temperatures ever recorded.
Here in Chicago it’s been coming down steadily for most of the day – fluffy powder because it’s only about 10 degrees right now…
John H:
“In Antarctica they have had measurable snow even at the coldest temperatures ever recorded.”
Yeah, but that was chunks of air surrendering and falling prostrate to the ground.
Very Pretty!
I would like to trade you that snow for the 80 degree weather we’re having in San Diego.
No, really.
No deal, Kaytie. I know how southern Californians drive in the rain; all of them driving in the snow would turn the 5 into a junkyard in ten minutes flat.
And a bit more pile on on the too cold to snow bit – Erie’s gotten got multiple inches of snow on every day of the coldest bit, and we’re only about five hours northeast of Dayton. Course, we’re on the lake, which generates snow storms all by itself, so we normally get more snow than you would down there.
Fabulous! It’s about time someone else got some of the white stuff. Now maybe we can start digging out.
Carrie in Colorado. 7 weekends of snow in a row. Entering 8th week of snow on the ground. And I don’t ski.
Beautiful. We’ve gotten some really nice snow this winter (finally) and hope to get a bit more before winter leaves for good.
Damn.
Well, here in Texas we’re finally back to normal winter weather – it’s about 72 outside, and sunny. It’s been ridiculously cold this winter, we’ve had snow/ice a couple of times already, so I’m glad it’s back to the normal convertible weather.
The outside temperature combined with my 3 PCs in my office at home and I may actually have to turn on the AC for a few minutes when I get home.
I want pictures of your dog trying to play fetch with a snowball.
Because, well, dogs are dumb enough to try.
Some snow in Louisville, but not enough cook soup, turn off the computer and tell the world to kiss off–I’m taking a snow day. I have hope for more tonight. I have my Trooper set in 4 wheel drive. Like most jackasses with an SUV, I never get to play with the fun stuff.
About 12 years ago when I was still on the road playing music, it snowed 24 inches here, so much Interstate 64 was closed. Louisville, of course, was totally unprepared. Streets were unplowed–they ran out of salt. We don’t get a lot of snow here. I had to cancel a five day tour. It was like being let out of jail.
Music is one of those professions you just can’t call in sick or take a personal day, and at the time I was on the road constantly. To get a snow week from the gods was the best vacation I ever had. My Akita had never seen snow, and it was a wonder to see her, a real snow dog, in her natural element for the first time. What a great week.
Skip,
You are an evil, evil person.
Poor baby… suffering with 72 degree temps…. We’ve been in the single digits with occasional forays into the teens and 20s.
Y’know, it’s funny- I grew up around snow (North Jersey), hated it, swore to move somewhere without snow someday. And yet I find that in its absence (I haven’t seen snow in a few years now), I miss it greatly. Not so much the plowing and shoveling, mind you, but just its being outside while I was safely inside.
Hopefully, about a month from now, I will again see snow, as I fully intend to be snowboarding in Germany at that time. Insh’allah, anyway.
By the way, how do you manage to clear that mile-long driveway of yours? Flame-thrower, or do you rely on an old-school snow-plow?
Our neighbor plows it for us. Because people are neighborly, ’round here.
Oh, man. I remember those “too cold to snow” days from Dayton. My first winter there, I thought my Texan self would never be warm again. By the last winter, I remember walking out to the car thinking, “Should I run back in and get my coat?…Nah. It’s snowing. It can’t be that cold.”
I’m really glad to be away from that weather. :-)
It was -25° C here yesterday, and the sky still found time to drop a dusting of snow on us. Heck, some came down overnight, when it was -30ish.
I sure am looking forward to the end of this here cold snap.
My dogs are just absolutely geeked about it. The one keeps ringing the bells by the door to be let out and play.
I’ve been wanting snow all winter, and we finally get it on the day I have to drive from Chicago to Akron. Only added about an hour to the drive…
Thanks, Mother Nature!
K
I told you all, once we got our new big plow I stopped praying for warm weather. You’re all on your own now.
Plus it’s fun to hear the trees in the woods out back snap from the cold, NOT. That means many days with the chainsaw cleaning up the windfall in spring.
One part of my commute hs a couple of fields in a row. The wind driffs at the edge of the road are now getting taller than the car.
I happen to be in DC this week teaching a class. I thought I’d get a respite from Alaska’s winter. Hah! It was 57 when I left Anchorage Saturday night, and it’s somewhere in the low single digits here. Then today, they say it might snow. Hysterical, people hereabouts are stocking up on bottled water and food like it’s the end of the world. I used to live here, but it’s been a number years and I’d forgotten how weird this city is in the winter.
The storm Nick describes in Louisville shut down most of the freeways in Kentucky and Tennesee. I was living right off I65 about 50 miles north, and our little interstate exit town filled up completely with trucks. Every hotel room, wall to wall trucks in Walmart, Kmart, and other parking lots. Meanwhile local restaurants ran out of food, besides not getting their shipments they were trying to feed all those stranded truckers.
Meanwhile we are home watching the news, laughing hysterically at Kentucky’s efforts to clear itsroads without any snow plows.
And as to music on the road….. many years ago I saw Harry Chapin in Flint Michigan in a blizzard. Harry’s band and equipment truck were stuck in snow in Illinois. About 50 people made it to Whiting Auditorium and Harry borrowed a guitar and sat on the edge of the stage. Best concert ever.
Current temp on the Indiana Michigan border is 5. Which is 11 degrees higher than when I left for work this a.m.
I grew up in lake effect country. There may have been a lot of snow but the lake effect also keeps the temps a little higher. Think Lake Michigan as a solar heat sink.
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Seattle’s the kind of city that shuts down completely for 3 inches of snow. It’s not so much that we’re wimps as it is the city is very hilly, steeply hilly; also, since we don’t get a lot of snow very often, we don’t have enough snowplows. Also, yes, we are wimps – esp. the schools, which live in fear of liability lawsuits, and shut down at even a hint of hazardous conditions.
This winter is the worst in 12 years. We’ve had multiple snowstorms, followed by a thaw-and-freeze that left a 2″ coating of ice on all roads, including the freeway; a rain-and-windstorm that blew through like a hurricane, leaving downed trees and power lines and parts of the Seattle-Tacoma area without power for over a week; and a freezing fog that coated cars and roads with black ice and caused 56 accidents in Seattle alone before sunrise.
Thing is, I love the snow. I love watching it fall. I love how the sky looks when it’s full of clouds which are full of snow. I love the ambient hush, and the screek-crunch sound snow makes when you walk on it. I love how everything looks like a Christmas card when covered in snow.
I even love driving in it – when no one else is on the road, a very important caveat! A few years ago, I drove in to work on a freeway 3 inches deep in snow. Mine was the only car for miles in either direction. I could fishtail and slide and drift around without any fear of running into anyone or anything: it was one of the Most Fun Drives Ever.
Heh – there sure are a lot of us near Louisville. Just over the river to Indiana we’ve got a bit more snow than the city. The kids got let out of school early today, and I have to get up a little early tomorrow to check whether or not it’s a snow day, as we’re supposed to get more tonight.
Plus it’s too blasted cold. My husband saw the thermometer (digital) yesterday morning and said “Cool! 32 degrees!”, and stepped out to get the paper. Wrong. It was 3.2 degrees.
CaseyL: I visited Seattle a couple years back. Scariest driving ever on the hills leading to the ocean. Everyone else was just ho-hum. Guess that comes with driving in Chicago for almost thirty years. You couldn’t pay me to drive in Seattle with snow or ice on the ground.
Me, I’ll stay with the -30 temps and a wind that actually drove some people crazy during the prairie homesteading times.
Hey John H,
I have seen diamond dust in Antarctica, which is snow falling from a blue sky at -58 degrees, but that never amounts to measurable snow. I believe it is a myth that measurable snow has ever fallen in Antarctica at the coldest temperatures ever recorded. It is a known fact that as temperature decreases, the capacity for water vapor in the air decreases. Once the ground temperature reaches -10 f, it is very unlikely that snow will fall, much less fall in measurable amounts.
I know how southern Californians drive in the rain; all of them driving in the snow would turn the 5 into a junkyard in ten minutes flat.
This is so unbelievably true. I’m from Northern California and used to live in San Diego. I would avoid driving when it rained, not because of the rain, but because nobody down there knows what to do when it rains. As soon as it starts to rain, it’s like everyone says to themselves, “Oh my God! What is this stuff falling from the sky? Let’s get to work/home/school as fast as we can before the sky falls on us!”
It’d be pouring out and you could hardly see anything and then a Lexus or something would zoom by you at 80mph.
Seriously folks. When it rains, all you have to do is slow down and stop tailgating!
Snow – gee, that’s different. As we still have a 448cm base here excuse me if I’n not jealous ;->
Yeah we did get a lot of snow, but the good thing is that it is all powder. But still played havoc with traffic on I-70 and I-75. Lot of semis skidding into the sidewalls.
One bright spot though, I found out that my leaf blower works pretty good on this type of snow we got. Sure, I got some looks, but my walk and driveway are immaculate.